The ingredients specialist has developed TopBake Rice Bread QSD – a 100% mix that enables bakers to produce gluten-free rice bread with improved taste and color.

Speaking to BakeryandSnacks.com, product manager at DeutscheBack Martina Mollenhauer explained that the typical taste and color qualities of rice-based breads left much to be desired.

“Rice bread is very, very pale – nearly white – and so the sourdough mix gives a slightly yellow crumb structure. Overall, it’s a bit darker and looks a bit more like wheat bread,” she said.

Rice bread also typically had a very flat, rice flavor, she explained, so the sourdough gave a better taste.

“Sourdough is a fermented flour, and during the fermentation the microorganisms – it’s organic acids, partly alcohol and several other flavor-giving compounds,” she said.

Asked what DeutscheBack had used as a base for the non-wheat sourdough, she said that fact would have to be kept a secret, but added that it was an assured gluten-free source.

Why rice?

The ingredients firm had focused on rice as a gluten-free bakery option, rather than other grains like buckwheat and quinoa because of cost and availability, Mollenhauer said.

“Rice is a popular choice for gluten-free because of availability and price. If you look to Asia, rice is a very important consumed good and if you consider buckwheat or quinoa by comparison, these are very special and you don’t have tons over tons available in the worldwide market. I guess rice is more or less a staple food, readily available.”

Rice breads have been used in gluten-free for some time, and will continue to be used as the gluten-free sector develops, she added.

100% ready mix for assurance purposes

Mollenhauer said that DeutscheBack had decided to develop a ready mix TopBake Rice Bread QSD for ease of use at the baking stage.

“In gluten-free, you have to control everything and be on the safe side. If you have 24 materials in stock, you have to control 24 materials. So, with the mix, you only have one thing to check – it’s easier for the user,” she said.

At the same time, it has guaranteed that its freshness enzyme system TopBake Fresh 60 (Rice) and its TopBake WA Pure (Rice) are both gluten-free; containing less than 20 parts per million of gluten.

“If you’re asked for an enzyme or special compound, normally we’ll use wheat as a carrier or a feeding system to get enzymes out – it’s really hard to get gluten-free raw materials. From a performance aspect, these two ingredients are not quite new, but the gluten-free guaranteed aspect is new,” she said.